Can-Am

The Canadian - American Challenge Cup, short or CanAm Can-Am, was in the years 1966 to 1974 a series of sports car racing in North America. The counterpart in Europe was or is the Inter series. A second generation of CanAm with fundamentally different rules based on outdated Formula 5000 cars were fitted with the look of sports cars.

CanAm started out as a race series for racing sports cars with two races in Canada (English Canada, therefore, Can) and four races in the United States (America, so on ). The series was initially sponsored by J- Wax. For the series, the Group 7 rules from the FIA regulations of the FIA, which had very little restrictions on innovations were. These rules allowed virtually unlimited possibilities with displacement, power, turbochargers and the downforce of the car to experiment. This was ultimately the consequence that truly " monstrous " car with well over 1,000 hp ( 750 kW), wings, active Anpressdruckerzeugung, very low weights and until then never seen speeds -been developed.

Notable drivers and technologies

Notable drivers of the original CanAm series are practically all important drivers of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Denis Hulme, Bruce McLaren, Phil Hill, Mark Donohue, Jim Hall, Chris Amon, Dan Gurney, Peter Revson, Masten Gregory, John Surtees, Parnelli Jones, Mario Andretti, Jack Brabham, Pedro Rodríguez, Vic Elford, and Jackie Stewart drove all sometime CanAm car.

CanAm was the birthplace and proving ground for, at this time, monstrous technology. CanAm cars were among the first racing car with wings, high-performance turbochargers, clad underbody and materials from the aerospace industry, such as titanium. This ultimately led to the demise of the original series, as the cost degenerated. However, the CanAm cars were always on the cutting edge of racing technology. Notable designers of the series were McLaren, Chaparral, Lola, BRM, Shadow and Porsche.

As the ultimate CanAm racing car applies the turbocharged Porsche 917/30 Spyder.

Decline

In 1974, the last CanAm Championship took place. Dizzying costs, an economic slump in North America as a result of the oil crisis and loss of interest in sponsors leading to discontinuation of the series at the end of the 1974 season. The name CanAm was still unknown what the SCCA in 1977 led to introduce a second CanAm series, which A/5000 series based on revised vehicles recently resolved formula. However, the fame and success of the original could never be reached again.

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